Sword Art Online II Ep. 14: Let’s talk our way out of this arc

Busy, busy day, so let’s just get Kirito’s delusions of grandeur out of the way. As you’ll recall, the author put yet another SAO heroine in danger of rape just so Kirito can burst in and act all badass. Sadly, we’re in the real world, so we won’t see our pathetic boyhero chop Sinon’s would-be rapist into a million little pieces like he did with Oberon the Fairy King. Instead, brace yourselves for Sinon burying her face into Kirito’s manly, manly chest, but nevertheless coming to the sad realization that she’s just a side-story haremette. With that knowledge, she can do no more but fade into the background as we prepare ourselves for a new arc. Hey, it happened to Asuna, and she’s the waifu!

— I know crazy people, you guys. And what they do is climb on top of someone and just repeat said someone’s name over and over until the hero can make his triumphant entrance!

— Why is he telling her to run? Where are the cops? Where’s Asuna? Did she drop by the hospital just to be by his side, but when Kirito decided to play hero, she’s like, “Okay, be safe!” Also, what did Kirito tell the nurse? Y’know, the nurse who’s supposed to be in charge of his health? According to her, he was really dehydrated, you guys. Did she just let a guy who’s been lying in bed for hours to just charge off by himself to stop a known murderer?

— Instead of calling the cops, Kirito tried to be a hero. Instead of kneeing the bad guy in the face then grabbing Sinon and run, Kirito tried to hold the bad guy back. So you’re damn right he got you.

— I’m not even amused by the fact that Sinon ran back to save her harem lead. Again, she would’ve given up in last week’s episode, but the thought of Kirito coming to see her gave her strength. So whatever, her character hasn’t undergone any breakthrough in my mind. She doesn’t act for herself.

— Sinon looks at Kirito’s wound; she even pulls up his shirt. Hm. Hm. Yes. Quite. Just one question: WHY HAVEN’T YOU CALLED THE POLICE? I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at, though. He got a condom stuck on his left nipple? By the way, psst, call the cops.

— Oh, Sinon wipes the liquid away, then puts her hand on the Gary Stu’s tiny, tiny chest. The cooooops. The cooooooppppssssss.

— Y’know, she hasn’t killed Kyoji. I’m not saying she should, but she hasn’t. So at any point in time, the guy could come to his senses and see his defenseless crush sitting before him. But hey, let’s caress the Gary Stu’s chest like we’ve got all the fucking time in the world, baby.The cops.

— Sinon: “Hey, what is this thing that’s stuck to you?” Hm, hm, good question.The cops.But thanks to that awesome question, Kirito bolts upright as if he’s perfectly A-OK.The cops.Apparently, he still had an electrode from a heart monitor stuck to him!The cops.So he didn’t get injected at all! Kyoji missed entirely.The cops.Oh, the coincidences!

— Sinon starts shaking Kirito, because he had made her worry.The cops.Haha, that scamp!

— Kirito: “Is he okay?” Another great question!The cops.Let’s reach over and feel his pulse.The cops.It’s the least we can do for a murderer and wannabe rapist. Then, let’s turn around and thank the Gary Stu for coming.The cops.We wouldn’t want to be rude, now would we?

— Sinon starts sobbing, so Kirito slides over to put his hand on her shoulder. There, there… it’s okay. And with that, the scene comes to an end. I can only assume that they eventually called the cops but that doesn’t change the fact that this scene was incredibly dumb as hell. It’s amazing how these two idiots are the winners of some massive PVP tournament, because they have no common sense or survival instinct whatsoever.

— The next day, we see Sinon sitting alone as her bullies from school round the corner. Y’see, they had called her out, and she stupidly complied. But it’s different this time! She’s totally not scared of guns (read: penises) anymore! It’s quite simple, really. What? You think a girl joining a game full of guys and guns just so she can shoot down said guys isn’t symbolic of anything? You think the Gary Stu acquiring an androgynous avatar to get closer to the girl doesn’t mean anything either?

“B-but the author is too dumb to intend that!”

He doesn’t have to intend anything.

“What about Kyoji?! She was friends with him before he went all rapey on her!”

I’m not saying she was literally scared of men. I’m not saying she shakes like a leaf whenever she meets one. Obviously, this isn’t the case. I’m just saying she’s got unresolved issues towards the opposite sex ever since her traumatic incident at the post office. The gun is just a stand-in for something deeper: she has no fucking agency. If she had been a boy, everyone would call her a hero. But because she’s a girl, it’s all weird and shit that she fired a gun. This wasn’t a throwaway line in the previous episode: “I’m sure you’re the only girl in Japan who’s killed a real bad guy with a real gun.” Sinon’s supposed to be different, tainted, corrupted, and all that bullshit just because she’s shot a man with a gun. Her own mom was scared of her. She’s been robbed of her moment of heroism all because she’s a girl. So in the real world, she doubles down on being the helpless girl who can’t do anything as if to overcompensate. Then in the virtual world, she literally wields the longest penis (sniper rifle) she can find, which she then uses to penetrate men with her seed (bullets). So who is Sinon really? The shy, weak girl in real life? Or the badass, buttcrack-showin’ sniper in GGO? The answer is somewhere in the middle. The lesson — in theory, anyway — is that Sinon should just learn to accept herself instead of swinging from one extreme to the next. Her exposure therapy doesn’t work until she meets Kirito, because, well, guns were never the real issue to begin with. Why else would she be able to use guns in the virtual world and be shit-scared of a toy gun in the real world? In the virtual world, she gets to be the aggressor with anonymity. In the real world, she can’t stand up for herself, because everyone knows who she is.

So Sinon meets Kirito, who’s not like any of the other guys in GGO. He looks like a girl, he only uses a handgun (and even then, he barely uses it anyway), and he spends a lot of his time getting all emotional about his stupid feelings (we sat in a cave for an entire episode just to talk about his dumb feelings). And yeah, Kirito still uses a sword, which is a phallic symbol in its own right, but therein lies the rub. Using a sword allows Kirito to look fabulous. Guns are cold and utilitarian. You aim and you shoot. Done. With a sword, Kirito expresses himself. He twirls like a fucking ballerina. None of his movements are necessary whatsoever, but he gets to put his feelings on display. Anyway, despite all of Kirito’s flaws, he accepts who he is in order to save the day. So blah blah blah, watching the Gary Stu in action gives Sinon the courage to finally accept who she is as well, even if that means she’s a girl who had once pulled a trigger and murdered a man. But this isn’t an empowering story by any fucking means. In the end, she just allows herself to be saved over and over. Salvation is just tacit acceptance of your gender role: sure, sure, accept who you are, but afterwards, let the Gary Stu take care of you. And yes, she does technically save Kirito’s life in return. But again, she only acts for the Gary Stu, because of the Gary Stu, so on and so forth. When Kyoji was all over her and she could have honestly kicked him hard in the crotch, she didn’t do a damn fucking thing until Kirito showed up. Sure, she gains the courage to act, because her friend is in danger, but considering her trauma, her triumphant moment should have come on her own without Kirito’s help. Sinon should have been able to defend herself the same way she had defended herself at the post office: kick Kyoji in the dick, then stab him with the syringe. Instead, her heroism just gets robbed again.

And that’s the story. Buy my analysis or not, I don’t care. I already anticipate many of you guys to balk at what I’ve written above. Overthinking it, taking it too seriously, the writer couldn’t have intended this, blah blah blah. I’ve heard it all before.

— So is that an airsoft gun in the bully’s hands? I don’t know, I don’t know guns. I don’t care about guns. But again, that’s the point of this dumb scene. The bully merely steals her brother’s gun, but she doesn’t know a damn thing about it. Sinon knows what the gun is (1911 whatever), she even thinks the bully’s brother has good tastes, and she knows how to use the gun properly. Before, this would’ve troubled her, i.e. “Why can’t I just be a normal girl like everyone else?” Now, she accepts it, which allows her to stand up for herself. The only problem is that she should’ve had the same courage with Kyoji.

— Afterwards, she comes to the school gates just to find Kirito being all badass and shit. Seriously, he’s just standing there, leaning against his motorcycle. He’s even got his back turned to the school. Heh, I bet you girls want to know what I’m all about, dontcha?

— Unfortunately for our heroes, the third culprit is still on the run. Oh looooord, who wants to bet he shows up later to fuck with Kirito? Actually, this will so obviously happen, it’s not even worthy of a bet. I sure am glad we got this information through a boring, expository voiceover from Kirito, though!

— It’s just a matter of time before the third guy is caught, Kirito tells us! You’d think after all that our heroes have been through, maybe the government would put them under some sort of protection until the third and final culprit has been caught. But nah, that won’t happen.

— I don’t know why Kirito is now explaining to us again how the Death Gun trio went about stalking and killing their victims. Haven’t we been over this?

— More filler as Kirito painstakingly explains to us why Kyoji had gone mad. Great. The arc is basically over, but we’re still padding this shit out. I’m not going to discuss what Kirito’s saying here. It’s just old information. Even the resulting conversation with the government official is just more old information.

— I like how Sinon is also wearing a tie. How very formal.

— Here’s where we explain why the older brother did what he did: he had a weak constitution, and his father didn’t believe in him. How sad. So let’s go murder people! Man, the father must have believed in him even less when he got himself stuck in SAO like an idiot.

— Kirito pontificates on the dark side of VRMMOs: “Reality starts to seem less real.” And in a better anime, this would totally be a salient point. Unfortunately, this is SAO, so it’s painfully unexplored. The idea that reality becomes less real is merely something we hear about at the end of an arc after the bad guy has been caught. It’s discussed in a rather clinical way.

— Haha, sure, Kirito left things in the virtual world, and as such, there’s less of him here. Whatever, man. As for Sinon, she accepts that her reality is wherever she is, but we’ve been over that so…

— More talk about people’s realities. Kyoji apparently abandoned the real world to make GGO his reality. He then proceeded to kill people in the real world. He also tried to rape Sinon. He’s got an odd way of abandoning the real world. But despite this, Sinon even requests to see Kyoji in person. I’m barely keeping myself awake…

— Through a letter, Red-eyed Zaza taunts Kirito one last time. Time for a new arc?!

— But first, Kirito must properly introduce Sinon to the rest of his haremettes. Y’see, she’s got to have a place to stay safe while he runs off to yet another virtual world to gallivant about with yet another hot anime babe. So Sinon, meet Asuna. Asuna, Sinon. Just look how pleased Asuna and Lisbeth are!

— Dude even introduces his girlfriend as “the berserk healer.” You two had virtual sex, but just because a new girl is here, you neg her? That’s low, man. That’s low even for you. Plus, since when did she become a healer? I thought she was a capable swordswoman.

— It turns out Kirito blabbed all about Sinon’s trauma to his friends without asking for permission. That’s… that’s pretty fucked up. Then Asuna and Lisbeth went to Sinon’s old hometown to drag someone from the past back into the present. What the hell? You guys are a bunch of nosy assholes. Yeah, yeah, they have good intentions, but man, you don’t force your good intentions on people like this. But all of a sudden, a mother and her daughter enters the room. The two of them then thank Sinon for saving their lives back at the post office that day. But what did Kirito and company do? Just ask around the post office about that day? Yo, remember when a girl saved you guys from a gunman? Anyone want to come all the way out to some bar to give her thanks? Anyone? C’moooooon, she’s all traumatized and shit! Who wants to be nice and give her thanks! What a dumbass way for this arc to come to an end.

Just a question, did it bother anyone else that it was Kirito and his harem that went to Sinon’s home town and not Sinon herself?

This meeting between her and the bank employee could have given Sinon’s arc some closure. The way it’s presented here feels like it robs her of agency in the story to allow Kirito to speechify. The framing in the bar becomes weirder when you consider the previous scene with Sinon and the bullies where she actually asserts herself with understandable difficulty.

Honestly, we are at a point where anything in SAO that has happened, is happening and will happen will be pure and utter nonsense. It’s painfully clear that nothing in this universe has been well thought out, much less thought out at all.
This world we are looking at and its characters are a fully diluted and illogical caricature of our own world.

Damn, another nice girl gets friendzoned again. She rushes to his side, she gives him e-sex, she levels up her cooking just to make him special meals, and this is the thanks she gets? Friendzoned by another dick again? UGH. This is why nice girls turn bitter.

Any one else notice how the stereo sinon used to smack the rapist magically duplicates itself back onto the table as if nothing happened at all? A1do you even know how to be consistent? Well, they know how to be consistently bad.

Silly E Minor, if Kirito called the cops to back him up while rushing over there then they would steal his spotlight

I also agree on many of the conclusions you came to about Sinon. It became set in stone by the end of the last episode that she wouldn’t be allowed to get any decent character development, female characters rarely do in shows like SAO.

“Overthinking it, taking it too seriously, the writer couldn’t have intended this, blah blah blah. I’ve heard it all before.”
No need to put up the defenses so roughly, mate, but I see where you’re coming from. Even as one of those who’ve said you were over-thinking things numerous times before, I actually can’t see how you ARE over-thinking this with you analysis. Honestly, everything is pretty damn on-point.
…Okay, maybe your “sniper-dick seed-bullet” line was a bit far (hilarious though), but everything else you said resonates with what we’ve seen. In other circumstances I’d argue that there’s nothing wrong with her finding courage/agency/whatever only when she sees her friend in danger, but here I agree that it doesn’t fit. Her theme wasn’t “finding courage despite those against you” so much as it was “accepting yourself despite what others think of you”, which would have been better conveyed if she’d acted on her own to save herself, thus destroying the “weak her” people expected and becoming the “independent her” she was meant to be.

And you CAN tell this WAS intended by the author because of all the story points and that significant line of dialogue you mention, E Minor, so I’d find it silly for anyone to say otherwise.

Hell, even having Kitiro come in to help her would’ve been fine AFTER she’d attempted to save herself in some way that showed she’d accepted who she was instead of the role everyone expected her (as a girl) to stay in.
Ex: Kick rapey-face in the balls and knocked the syringe to the ground, breaking it. Then, when he pulls out his knife (switchblade hidden in his back pocket, just roll with it) and nicks her, she doesn’t act stupid and sets off to run. During that short chase, Kirito shows up, helps out, gets in trouble again, and she rescues him. Then she calls the DAMN COPS! haha
There. Now you’ve incorporated the hero, shown the would-be victim to be capable without him, AND would have had a much more appropriate end to her arc.

The sad issue with SAO is that it does indeed have a thick coating of misogyny, but you can tell this wasn’t intentional because someone like Kirito is the protagonist. He’s not a womanizer or a woman-hater, yet his very presence weakens women around him (not in the swooning way, though that too) and he always needs to save the girl. EVERY girl.
_This comes from amateur writing more than a hatred of women. The author simply doesn’t know how to let other characters BREATHE without the presence of the protagonist. He hasn’t learned that other characters should talk and think about many things related to them, not exclusively talk/think about/to the protagonist. SAO’s author doesn’t realize that other characters need to exist with arcs of their own that aren’t dependent on the protagonist. And that’s the issue here: dependency.

You can have characters that rely on the protagonist. After all, they often are the focal point of the story, and like the center of a whirlpool, all things lead back to the protagonist (in many stories, not all). However, a well written story has other characters that are just as fleshed out as the protagonist and contribute to the story. They do this via their interactions with the protagonist as well as their OWN personal actions.
_You’ll notice that most every character, EVERY character, wholly depends on Kirito in SAO with very few taking personal action or thought for very long before his presence interrupts it in some way. This poison of amateur writing is what ruined what was likely a sincere attempt from SAO’s author at creating and developing an independent female character.

And trust me, if you’ve read the Kirito and Asuna sex scene in the novel, you’ll know this author really is quite awfully amateur. He should’ve withheld his works and refined his skills before publishing them.
_But then, if he’d done that he wouldn’t be half as famous and wealthy as he is now, and we wouldn’t have such fun mockery fodder.

You would be right if the show wasn’t so rape happy. Everytime a female is in danger it is do to rape. That is what happens when you treated your female characters as meat bags with boobs instead of characters.

To an extent, but not entirely. Let’s not forget that unintended unpleasantness can result from poor choices. For example: TerraForMars is regarded by many (not all, but quite a few) to be a thinly veiled racist story featuring racist caricatures of black men.
_Was that the author’s intent? I don’t know. I think the enemies look the way they do because the creator just wanted to merge the large eyes of a roach and with the skull features of a primitive man (and that creepy Twilight Zone ant-man thing).

It’s unfair to say that an author is racist or misogynistic due to perceived themes in their work without knowing their intent (unless it’s a political comic).
However, unlike even with TerraForMars, we CAN say that the STORY of SAO is misogynistic in its portrayal of women since that’s evident.

We’ll know if TerraForMars is racist when one of the Roach-men screams “World Star!!”. haha
No but really, we have no idea.

See, I can understand where you’re coming from, however you have to understand that rape is the amateur’s quick-pick to “sudden, stark drama”. It’s easier to put up a potential rape scene for the hero to swoop in and save the girl than it is to develop a more unique and logical scenario. Case in point: Most “dark hero” stories start out with saving a woman from a rape.
_It’s most often a rape because that’s an easy crime to define and immediately understandable to the audience, and it’s most often a woman as a victim with a man as a rapist since that’s what society instantly conjures up when people think of “rape”. It’s immediate, it’s easily understood, and it’s cheap (unless written properly and with some substantial thematic purpose).

Like a child, the amateur writer will keep doing what they’ve done before if given no direct criticism over their writing, or if the praise overshadows the critique.
I should know. I wrote garbage akin to SAO when I was a teenager. haha! Thank God for constructive criticism.

Now you can imagine the reason why rape is so often the go-to dramatic/climactic moment in SAO: because it’s easy.
Adding to that is the fact that SAO is very much built like a harem show, with the cast predominantly made up of women who ALL (excluding the daughter) want to jump Kirito’s bones. They want him because he’s the insert character, not just of the author but of the audience, and because he’s always being their shining knight (which is a fantasy of both men and women).
_So yes, the show is vaguely, and at times (especially thanks to Kirito’s stupid mouth) blatantly demeaning to its female cast, which can understandably and rightly be considered misogynistic, but it’s not because THAT’S the goal of the show. Rather that’s a byproduct of hack writing without any improvement.

Also, you nailed it with:
“That is what happens when you treated your female characters as meat bags with boobs instead of characters.”
See, again, it’s not that it’s the author’s intention, but it’s because he’s so. damn. AMATEUR!
_He has yet to realize the trick to writing a female character: Write a character, and if it suits the story, make them female.

In fact, I guarantee SAO’s author is writing female characters based on his impression from watching harem anime, a genre that is blatantly willfully ignorant on how to write a human female character. haha!

Anyway, sorry for the massive reply. Just wanted to clarify my perspective on SAO & totally agree with you on how this show is awful, especially with female characters.

Thank you for your input. It’s very insightful. I just wonder about one thing: do LN writers have editors who review their work before it’s sent for publishing? Because from the amount of garbage in LNs I read I highly doubt it. It’s not even things related to plot or characters, but simple stuff like being repetitive in explanations and placing long and convoluted dialogues during tense moments or fights.

Can we agree that SAO is without a doubt a harem anime? One male MC? Check. A large percentage of the cast comprised of females that are unrealistically faithful and of above average beauty? Check. No other male presence that threatens the MC’s masculinity and alpha male status? Check.
I don’t think anyone would fight me on this, but the harem genre is innately purely misogynistic and sexist. Why? Because like the original (or even the bastardized) meaning of the harem, the man is obviously the top of the food chain with the women underneath him. Funnily enough, unlike the REAL harem owners of the past, harem anime MC’s never have the wealth or social stature to “own” his own harem.
So while Reki Kawahara’s quality of writing is abysmally low-tier, I can still argue that the lack of skill in itself shouldn’t take a large part of the blame. Simply thinking that the “classic anime harem scenario” is an okay thing to write and submit to publishing is very much INTENTIONALLY sexist and misogynistic.
Phew, I wouldn’t put much stock in that embarrassment of a character called “Kirito” to be a defense of why Reki isn’t a piece of shit. While Kirito is not exactly a wife-beater wearing woman-hater, it’s pretty apparent that he was characterized to be a “womanizer” though. Womanizer is in quotes because the essence of women being “juggled” is somewhat present but Kawahara couldn’t portray proper womanizing to save his life. This season with Sinon made it abundantly clear with the whole cave scene (I mean, the whole episode). If Kirito REALLY had strong feelings for Asuna who is obviously meant to be the main love interest, I don’t think he would have allowed the whole exchange to go all touchy-and-feely with a too-long hug and lap-resting. Even Reki Kawahara (who I believe have no idea how humans work) would know that the relationship between partners and acquaintances (Kirito and Sinon) would not go to those lengths. And in the context of Japanese culture? That’s even more outlandish. Kawahara MEANT to have that scene to try and include Sinon into the long line of harmettes. Was he successful? Probably, I mean that was as much “romance” as the other girls got if not more. So what does that tell you about Asuna? Well, she’s basically worthless. And like I have said numerous times, the disrespect for not only characters but female characters in particular is incredibly embarrassing.
And what about other female characters, excuse me, haremettes? Like Lisbeth, Silica, or even Suguha (ugh…)? Why are they even needed and what are they good for other than pandering? Aside from the whole incest-crowd pandering, there’s no reason why the “extra girls” couldn’t have been meaningful male characters. A blacksmith and a beast-master? I didn’t know that both are female-specific occupations. Well, it’s obviously because Kawahara made the conscious decision that he wanted a harem for Kirito.
I’m almost certain that if I went directly to Reki Kawahara and asked if he meant SAO to be as harem-y as it is, he’d confidently say “yes”.

And about you thinking that Reki should’ve held onto SAO and refined it for longer? If he had, he would’ve just come up with something closer to .HACK than it already is.

“Can we agree that SAO is without a doubt a harem anime?”
If not then it certainly carries the same feel of one, yeah.
“harem genre is innately purely misogynistic and sexist”
You don’t need to say both. One denotes the other. But yeah, I agree for the most part.
Actually, I do remember enjoying Tenchi Muyo, though that was on Toonami ages ago…

I can’t comment on the potential sexist nature of a harem since I really don’t know much about them or the cultures in which that kind of practice thrives. I can understand that the concept can be perceived as misogynistic, and I do agree that most ever-no, literally EVERY harem anime today is misogynistic. Also rather misandrist at times, come to think of it. I guess it’d be easier to say harem anime today are just sexist in general.

“Simply thinking that the “classic anime harem scenario” is an okay thing to write and submit to publishing is very much INTENTIONALLY sexist and misogynistic.”
What? No it isn’t. It’s lazy, sure, but it’s not sexist. It’s just someone wanting to follow the trend of what’s popular with their own thing. The WORK can be sexist but the intention to write and publish it is not itself sexist.
_Let’s also not forget that SAO is NOT literally a harem anime. We can call it one for easy classification, but it really isn’t. It has the trappings of one but remember: Kirito only has one main squeeze he’s already devoted himself to. He even has some weird AI kid with her.
It’s more accurate to say that SAO is akin to the poor generic-anime viewer’s Bond series. The girls Kirito bumps into aren’t added to a harem but rather they’re more like passing additions to the list of girls who pine for him because he’s just so manly(?) and awesome(?) and heroic. The difference is that, unlike in a harem, where the protagonist either gets all of the girls or bounces between them for several seasons straight, Kirito already and only has ONE girl.

By the way I’m just clarifying. I’m not defending this crappy show we love to mock for good reason. Heh

“Even Reki Kawahara (who I believe have no idea how humans work)”
Exactly what I say. I agree entirely. Haha!
Anyway, I don’t see how anything you’ve said negates what I discussed about amateur writing leading to the unfortunate result of misogyny in the show’s treatment of its predominantly female cast.

“And about you thinking that Reki should’ve held onto SAO and refined it for longer? If he had, he would’ve just come up with something closer to .HACK than it already is.”
I love .HACK, actually. Funny thing is, I hear SAO came out BEFORE .hack. While I prefer the narrative of .hack and G.U., I can’t see a downside to what could’ve been if Reki had refined SAO. I mean, it had a very good premise. Even E Minor was legitimately interested in SAO at first. You know, before he was stuck with the blunt object of shit writing. Haha! As we all were.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other. And sometimes, bigotry is subtle. It does not need to overt. If all your characters are damsels-in-distress, it doesn’t really matter what you intended. The results are staring at us right in the face. You can say that everyone depends on Kirito, but we mostly see female characters. The proof is in the pudding.

“Why not? ‘Cause the examples I listed are dismissive arguments.”
Fair enough. I just hope you’re not taking it to heart, mate. I can’t speak for others but even when I disagree with your analysis I can always appreciate it.
…And can often end up seeing it get proven right. Which, if that one reply about this on your AskFM is any evidence, seems to have happened yet again. Haha!

“If all your characters are damsels-in-distress, it doesn’t really matter what you intended. The results are staring at us right in the face.”
Oh, mate, totally. There’s no denying that, despite what the true intention/cause was, on a very obvious level SAO is misogynistic to its cast, and since even female side-characters get treated the same way as main heroines, it’s safe to say the show itself is misogynistic to a healthy–or rather unhealthy–degree. I mean hell, the show can accurately be dubbed “Rape Art Online” at nearly every turn, so yeah, we’ve got some misogyny goin’ on. haha

My stance has always been the same: people can disagree with me all they want, but they gotta bring more to the table than dismissive arguments like “You take things too seriously.” Those arguments are a dead end.

1. The heart-device thing saving Kirito from being stuck with the needle is this week’s most epic piece of schlock writing. Just how desperate and out-of-ideas do you have to be to make that your “solution” to this “problem”. Are we honestly led to believe that Mr. Rape’s needle of ALL PLACES on Kirito’s body to puncture would land DIRECTLY on that spot? Really? Did the device magnetically draw the needle to that point? Or did the Gary Stu Universe cosmically dictate that’s where it’ll be so there would be no consequences whatsoever?
2.The cops not being there? You put it aptly in the post, but Goddamn. Like I get it, Japanese cops are adept at helping lost kids get home but they’re TOTAL shit when it comes to preventing and investigating rape crimes. Got it. Yeah, I’m gonna say that it’s pretty doubtful that a couple of grown-ass Japanese policemen couldn’t handle one lanky Mr. Rape by themselves. They should’ve just called the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Wait, never mind, Kirito’s BETTER than the JSDF and the police combined.
3. So am I supposed to care about Sinon’s totally-legit psychological trauma because she’s getting bullied? Wait, no. I just remembered that I stopped caring about that almost RIGHT AFTER I learned about it.
4. Great. A whole episode of NOT BEING IN A MMO GAME. No, it’s fine. It’s not as if this show’s whole gimmick was about being about MMO’s.
5. I guess I have to be emotional about that whole “mother and daughter”-thing. Wait, lemme splash some of that “SAO trying to be heavy-handed” eye drop solution so I can keep up the illusion that I still have emotions that this show and several others certainly did not drain from me.

Holy-fuckin’-shit. This show is still not done.

PS: Last week’s “hand-on-phone/e-daughter” is still the most hilariously stupid thing I have ever seen. I don’t think anything will every beat that.

“Mr. Rape”
HAhaha! I don’t know why that cracked me up so much.
And yeah, while this week’s shlock piece was bad, I agree that the “touch your daughter through the phone” thing was hilariously more retarded.
Now the question is: Is it better or worse than “Changed Into Immortal Object”?

I love that Kirito explained to the secret agent guy how Shinkawa was motivated by someone saying his GGO build was bad. Now I’ll always know that somewhere in the SAO universe, there’s a government record saying that a murderer killed people because someone said he was bad at video games.

Which makes me wonder… how’s Sinon and her mother doing? Did she make peace with her? Because we know that the bullies were resolved and the mother and the daughter things which is meant to be a sob thing is resolved… what about her and her mother… YOU KNOW THAT THAT WAS THE WHOLE TRAUMA GUN FEAR PROBLEM WAS BECAUSE SHE WAS PROTECTING HER GODDAMN MOTHER?

Or is it because she’s just a parent that she’s not important in SAO-world?

Also, “Oh, your evil rapist ex-friend just wants to be stronger in the virtual world” Uhm… isn’t that Kirito’s purpose to be in SAO? Because he wants to be stronger, gets all the skills and the babes? Plus you know, the dark side of VRMMO is pretty much: a bunch of people are stuck in a virtual death trap game, a bunch of people can be trapped and BRAINWASHED to become NPCs, you can actually KILL a person with the toggle of a meter that focuses on PAIN TOLERANCE.

GEE, ASSHOLE. I WONDER ABOUT SAO BEING DARK… isn’t that the WHOLE VRMMO Scene dark and dangerous without the police or cyberhackers or vigilantes to interfere?

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